Title: Impact of variables on the naphthalene hydrogenation for the tetralin formation towards BTX production

Authors: Pedro Martin Vega-Merino; Roberto Quintana-Solórzano; Georgina Cecilia Laredo-Sanchez; Elva Arzate-Barbosa; Eli Hazel Olmos-Cerda

Addresses: Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, Mexico ' Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, Mexico ' Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, Mexico ' Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, Mexico ' Dirección de Investigación en Transformación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152, Ciudad de México, 07730, Mexico

Abstract: To achieve high naphthalene conversion and selectivity to tetralin as a first step for BTX production, experiments were carried out in a bench-scale setup processing four model mixtures with a commercial CoMo/Al₂O₃ catalyst at 250°C-375°C, 1.96-7.84 MPa, and 0.7-1.4 h⁻¹. Model mixtures were prepared by dissolving in n-hexadecane: naphthalene (10 wt%), dibenzothiophene (1.5 wt%) and carbazole (0.05 wt%). Without dibenzothiophene and carbazole, naphthalene conversion and selectivity to tetralin reached 95.6 and 97.2wt%, respectively at 250°C, 1.96 MPa and 1.2 h⁻¹. With dibenzothiophene and carbazole, naphthalene conversion dropped to 38.3 wt% (selectivity to tetralin = 99.6 wt%) at the same experimental conditions. Temperature and pressure were increased to 300°C and 2.94 MPa to enhance naphthalene conversion (97.4 wt%); (selectivity to tetralin = 87.0 wt%). HDS and HDN were complete yet accompanied by a loss in the catalyst activity due to deactivation by coke. [Received: December 11, 2017; Accepted: May 9, 2018]

Keywords: light cycle oil; LCO; benzene; toluene; and xylenes; BTX; hydrogenation; tetralin.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2020.106146

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2020 Vol.23 No.4, pp.504 - 517

Received: 11 Dec 2017
Accepted: 09 May 2018
Published online: 01 Apr 2020 *

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